Scotland’s climate has already changed, and will continue to do so. We need to increase flood resilience at all scales and help communities and their places adapt to the changing climate.

Scottish Government would like your help to develop Scotland’s first Flood Resilience Strategy which aims to set us on a path to support prosperous places and healthy communities that are more flood resilient. The Strategy will outline Scotland’s flood resilience ambitions and associated outcomes and set out the principles by which flood resilience will be delivered over the coming decades.

The 2022/23 and 2023/24 Programmes for Government make a commitment to consult on a new flooding strategy for Scotland, including how we build community flood resilience and engage a broader range of delivery partners to deliver more diverse flood management actions faster. The strategy will focus on how we can make our places more resilient to flooding in the context of the climate crisis and will put communities at the heart of that process.

How you can get involved

The Strategy needs to be co-owned by the people of Scotland and everyone who works to manage and improve Scotland’s places, our environment, and our communities. Responding to flooding will involve close collaboration between flood risk management practitioners and all of those involved in managing and designing Scotland’s places (and the infrastructure upon which we rely).

Stakeholder engagement on the vision, ambition and outcomes of the strategy commenced in Summer 2023 via a series of workshops hosted by Sniffer, ClimateXChange and the Scottish Flood Forum. The purpose of these events is to find out more about the unique nature of flooding issues and water resilience across Scotland, and discuss what stakeholders would like to see in the future Flood Resilience Strategy. 

Big Picture Workshops (Stage 1)

A first round of Big Picture workshops (Stage 1) took place July - August 2023 and focussed on the vision, ambition and outcomes of this strategy. We had a huge level of interest and views represented, with almost 200 people taking part, including community representatives, and practitioners from the public, private and third sectors.

Moving towards a Flood Resilience Strategy for Scotland Workshops (Stage 2)

Leading on from the Big Picture workshops, we are now holding a second stage of workshops where practitioners and community representatives come together to think 20 years ahead. We will explore the enablers of change needed so that we are transforming how we understand and manage land and create flood resilient places. This will address the key themes that emerged during Stage 1: inclusive engagement; working together to make good decisions; roles and responsibilities; sharing our stories and knowledge and measuring success.

We are currently inviting stakeholders to register to attend the next round of workshops (Stage 2), taking place in October 2023. 

Date	Location	Registration
Wednesday 4th October, 14:00 - 16:30	Inverness	https://FRSInvernessWorkshop04Oct.eventbrite.co.uk
Monday 9th October, 14:00 - 16:30	Online	https://FRSOnlineWorkshop9Oct.eventbrite.co.uk
Tuesday 10th October, 14:00 - 16:30	Glasgow	https://FRSGlasgowWorkshop10Oct.eventbrite.co.uk
Thursday 12th October, 10:00 - 12:30	Online	https://FRSOnlineWorkshop12Oct.eventbrite.co.uk
Thursday 26th October, 14:00 - 16:30 (rescheduled from 02 October)	Dumfries	https://FRSSouthScotlandWorkshop02Oct.eventbrite.co.uk

Places are limited and to ensure that we have a diverse mix of organisations and places represented, we have three different ticket categories for each event - practitioner (15 spaces available), community or placemaking representatives* (15 spaces available), policy makers (10 spaces available).

*We will cover travel costs for anyone attending on behalf of a Local Flood Action Group or Community Group, to the value of £50 per participant. 

Online Survey

Alongside these workshops, online engagement is being run to capture the thoughts of anyone who can’t attend one of the workshops or wants to input more information at a time that suits you. This has two elements: 

1.       An online survey is now open and can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FloodResilienceStrategy The survey should take around 15 mins to complete and will close on Monday 13^th November 2023. This survey is designed for those who have in-depth views that they would like to convey to policymakers, 

2.       However, if your time is more limited – the second part of the online engagement - a shortform version of the survey will be subsequently available.

Next phases

The output from both sets of workshops and the online engagement will be analysed and used by Scottish Government to draft the Flood Resilience Strategy.  

A public consultation will provide an additional opportunity to feedback in Spring 2024 before the final version is published in Autumn 2024.  

Contact us

Got a question? Please contact us at [email protected] or [email protected]